Family Kept Chinese Man in Cage for 11 Years

A mentally ill Chinese man has been kept in a cage for more than a decade by his family after he beat a child to death, media reported Monday, carrying images of him staring blankly though the bars.

This picture taken on May 24, 2013 shows Wu Yuanhong, 42, a mentally ill Chinese man, sits in a cage, which he has been kept for more than a decade by his family, at their home in Lijiachong village in Ruichang, China's Jiangxi province.

A mentally ill Chinese man has been kept in a cage for more than a decade by his family after he beat a child to death, media reported Monday, carrying images of him staring blankly though the bars.

This picture taken on May 24, 2013 shows Wu Yuanhong, 42, a mentally ill Chinese man, sits in a cage, which he has been kept for more than a decade by his family, at their home in Lijiachong village in Ruichang, China's Jiangxi province.

Text: AFP

Wu Yuanhong, 42, was shown sitting on blankets in the narrow enclosure, his feet shackled with a heavy chain and wearing only a T-shirt and his underwear.

He was diagnosed as a schizophrenic at the age of 15 and in 2001 he beat a 13-year-old to death, the Information Daily newspaper said on its website.

This picture taken on May 24, 2013 shows Wu Yuanhong, 42, a mentally ill Chinese man, gets his lunch served to him by his mother in a cage, which he has been kept for more than a decade by his family, at their home in Lijiachong village in Ruichang.

Wu was placed in shackles after his release, but his mother Wang Muxiang, built the cage after he escaped and walked around his home village of Shangfan scaring local residents, the report said.

Family members cried as they put him in the cage, the report added, but he escaped again and they were forced to build a stronger structure to hold him.

This picture taken on May 24, 2013 shows Wu Yuanhong, 42, a mentally ill Chinese man, eats his lunch in a cage, which he has been kept for more than a decade by his family, as his mother (L) looks on at their home in Lijiachong village in Ruichang, China's Jiangxi province.

"My son may be insane, and beat someone to death, but he's still my son. To use my own hands to place him in a cage was very hard to take, like being stabbed with a knife," the paper quoted Wang as saying

This picture taken on May 24, 2013 shows Wu Yuanhong (L), a mentally disabled man, sitting in his cage as his mother serves him lunch at their home in Lijiachong village in Ruichang.

Wang gives her son three meals a day, placing a cloth over the cage and providing a pan when he needs the toilet."Every time I delivered food, I would sit at his cage and cry," she reportedly said, adding: "Now my tears are dried up."

Many mentally ill people in China go without proper treatment due to a lack of resources and qualified professionals, especially in the countryside.

The Ministry of Health said in 2010 that there were only about 20,000 psychiatrists to serve the country's population of 1.35 billion, the state-run China Daily reported.

Authorities estimated in 2009 that about 170 million people had some form of mental illness, while more than 16 million suffered from severe mental health problems.

The Information Daily quoted local officials as saying they had supported Wu's family with donations of oil and rice, adding Jiangxi had launched limited subsidies for poor families with mentally ill relatives.

An official at the police station in Nanyang, which covers Shangfan, told AFP he was not aware of the case.